AN HYSTERICAL PROTEST

By Delbert R. Gardner

For years I have wanted to take a baseball bat to otherwise irreproachable American scholars who speak of "an historical novel" under the influence of the British custom of placing the article "an" rather than "a" before words beginning with "h," but I have manfully controlled myself. "All right," I said. "This far, but no farther. As long as they stop here, let's grant them this one idiosyncrasy."

However, the purveyors of Briticisms have not stopped there, but have lately become even bolder. With barefaced audacity, they proclaim that the Iliad or the Aeneid is "an heroic poem." Next, I have no doubt, will come "an happy coincidence." Where will they stop? The time has come for all red-blooded American defenders of the article "a" before a sounded "h" to cry out with one voice against the insidious agents of recolonization before we are all caught with our aitches down.